Harman Pro cuts 650 jobs in bid to consolidate workforce

Harman Professional Solutions is laying off 650 of its employees in a bid to consolidate its workforce, AVNetwork has reported.

In addition to these significant job losses, there will be several facility closures over the course of the next year, including Elkhart, Indiana, South Jordan, Utah and a number of smaller offices across Europe.

“To be clear, the changes we announced yesterday are the culmination of a transformation that the Professional Solutions Division has been undergoing for the last two years to better serve our customers, increase our competitiveness, and accelerate new product innovations,” said David Glaubke, director of public relations, global professional solutions, Harman International.

The company also said that it will now enter a “rebuilding” mode and form three “Centers of Competency”: Northridge, CA for acoustics; Richardson, TX for electronics, DSP, and video and control; and Aarhus, Denmark for lighting. “These centers will allow the company's engineers to focus on critical product differentiations instead of requiring them to develop motors, mechanical structures, and other supporting elements. The job of converting these technologies into competitive products will be for our newly formed New Product Innovation (NPI) teams.”

Harman is redirecting its investments to IT tools and platforms, giving its employees, distributors and representatives the tools they need to easily transact business. According to Glaubke, Harman is also creating additional ‘Experience Centers’ in the US and Europe. The combination of Centers of Competency and Experience Centers will create new roles and positions within the company.

“We have given our employees advance notification of the changes we will make over the next year to assist with the transition and will do our best to mitigate the impact to our employees and their families,” Glaubke added. “Importantly, we also will ensure that the process is completely seamless for our customers.”

In the first major sit-down with the press since Harman Pro became a radical corporate transformation in September 2017, president Mohit Parasher gives insight into the past two years since its acquisition by Samsung in 2016